This autumn, Kunsthal Extra City presents Sea Through Skin, a solo exhibition by South African artist Bianca Baldi. Visually layered, the exhibition — curated by Joachim Naudts and Darly Benneker — explores the personal and politically charged phenomenon of racial passing — where individuals present themselves, or others perceive them, as belonging to a different racial group.

The exhibition marks the culmination of Baldi’s PhD in the arts at Sint Lucas Antwerp, titled Play-White: Racial Passing and Embodied Images. Through a multidisciplinary visual practice, Baldi reflects on how identity, perception, and power shape how we look and how we are looked at.

At the heart of the exhibition is the cuttlefish: a sea creature capable of changing colour, texture, and shape to adapt to its surroundings. For Baldi, the cuttlefish becomes a powerful symbol for camouflage, fluid identity, and the visual codes through which identity is read. The figure recurs across multiple works in the show,…